One avenue the Sox appear likely to pursue is to ask first baseman Roberto Petagine (above) whether he would be willing to play again in Japan. The Sox could simply release Petagine, but probably would prefer to see whether they could cut a deal for him in Japan, where he averaged 37 home runs and 99 RBIs over a six-year span before signing with the Sox last winter.

The lefthanded-hitting Petagine came into camp last spring as a candidate to platoon with Kevin Millar at first base, but he hurt his left knee early in camp, underwent arthroscopic surgery, and when the season began was left back in Fort Myers, Fla. Eventually he played for Pawtucket and put up nice numbers — .327 average, 20 home runs, 69 RBIs — but didn’t get summoned to Boston until Aug. 4, when the Sox purchased his contract from the PawSox.
In 18 big-league games, Petagine hit .281 (9 for 32), his one home run coming off Jon Garland of the White Sox Aug. 13, but he had just six at-bats in September before being excused near the end of the season to return to his native Venezuela to deal with a family tragedy.

Petagine turns 35 June 7, and thus appears to be the most logical player the Sox would move to create space for his fellow Venezuelan, GonzÃ¡lez, who passed his physical earlier this week in Boston but has returned home to play for Venezuela in the Caribbean Series and has committed to playing for his country in the World Baseball Classic, according to his agent, Eric Goldschmidt. Playing in the WBC, which runs from March 3-21, would cut into the time GonzÃ¡lez would be spending in camp with the Red Sox, getting acquainted with his new double play partner, Mark Loretta.